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Rieder gets on board -- both with deal and with goals -- with Flames

Author of the article:

Wes Gilbertson

Publishing date:

September 29, 2019 • 4 minute read

Flames right winger Tobias Rieder (right) battle for the puck with Oilers defenceman Adam Larsson and has himself a game last night at the Saddledome. Sergei Belski/USA TODAYSergei Belski/ USA TODAY Sports

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Both are significant steps as the 26-year-old forward — signed to a one-year, two-way contract after a successful tryout at the Saddledome — finishes flipping the page on what was a fruitless and frustrating campaign with the Edmonton Oilers, what must have seemed like an especially cold and cruel winter in another hockey hotbed.

“I’m just trying to forget about last year,” Rieder said. “You know, I learned a lot from it, but I want to get back to my game and just show what I can do and what I did early on in my career. And that’s the plan.”

There was no hiding that stat-line from fans in Edmonton, but Rieder’s bagel became the talk of the entire hockey world after he was ripped by Oilers chairman Bob Nicholson at a season-ticket-holder breakfast: (“If Toby Rieder would have scored 10 or 12 goals, we’d probably be in the playoffs,” said Nicholson, who later apologized.)

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On Saturday, facing his former teammates in the Flames’ pre-season capper, the left-handed Rieder whizzed a wrist-shot past Oilers netminder Mikko Koskinen on the glove-side. Later, he was credited with another on re-direction.

Goals, albeit only in exhibition!

Finally!

“It was a challenge mentally, obviously, not scoring a goal,” Rieder said, reflecting on his only winter with the Oilers. “But I think you just get tougher as a person, you learn to handle the mental aspect of the game and just try to get back to the player who you are.”

Now, Rieder is employed on the southern side of the NHL’s Battle of Alberta.

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Although the Flames had yet to announce the deal prior to Saturday’s pre-season finale, the new guy in No. 16 will reportedly earn the league minimum of US$700,000 at the NHL level, about all the team could afford after signing Matthew Tkachuk to a big-money bridge deal earlier this week.

“I’m really happy about it,” Rieder said after morning skate. “I think I had a good camp. That’s what I was trying to get ready for all summer, and I am really happy it worked out.”

Rieder certainly made the most of his eye-opener.

He arrived in tip-top shape, finishing second on the Flames’ fitness-testing charts.

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He received an unprompted shout-out from Bill Peters after the first practice, with Calgary’s head coach telling reporters the fleet-of-foot German “looked outstanding” in that session.

He’s been praising his work ever since, even referring to Rieder as “an elite penalty-killer” after he was stopped on a shorthanded breakaway in Thursday’s pre-season date with the Sharks in San Jose.

“We went and looked at his goals throughout his career, and he’s usually around 12 to 16,” Peters said after Saturday’s morning skate. “Last year, snake-bit, lost confidence, never went in for him. But you see early this year, the chances he’s generating … If he continues to generate those chances on a consistent basis, he’s going to score.

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“We really like the energy he plays with, the maturity he plays with, the strength on the wall, strength in battles, the speed on the forecheck. There are a lot of good things with this player.”

While Rieder was scribbling his signature on a contract, fellow forward Devante Smith-Pelly was released Saturday from his PTO with the Flames.

Two other free-agent invitees, blue-liner Andrew MacDonald and bulldog Zac Rinaldo, are still around on their auditions.

It was a relief for Rieder, who admittedly didn’t have a Plan B, to find a home for this upcoming campaign.

He must have exhaled again when Saturday’s second-period shot eluded Koskinen.

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Suddenly, in the third, he was on a roll.

Among all NHL forwards, nobody logged more appearances and total icetime or fired more shots on goal last season without a single lamp-lighting.

That’ll stick in your craw long after the snow melts.

“I thought about, ‘OK, I have to do more. I have to do this and this. I don’t want this to happen again,’ ” Rieder said. “So yeah, it’s in your head. Obviously, why would you want to have a season like that again?”

The Flames offered a contract mostly because of his speed and penalty-kill prowess, and he’ll likely be cast in a fourth-line role, but Rieder wants to contribute on the score-sheet, too.

During Saturday’s friendly against his former squad, he reminded everybody that is capable of that.

“You’re just happy. Finally, something goes in, something is going your way …” Rieder said afterward. “That puts the confidence way up, knowing that you can still score. And perfect timing, I think, right before the regular season. I’m feeling really good about my game right now.”

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